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Monday, February 29, 2016

One more picture to share from my Bowman Lake adventure. I love how GREEN the moss is.

And now... drum roll... I know you've all been waiting to see how poorly I did on THE LIST.

It seemed like there were too many interesting things happening at the end of January to break them up with a goal report, so now you get two months lumped together. I'm not overly proud of this, but I did a few things.

54 in 300, report on day 128

Number

Category

Item

Jan & Feb

Total

1

WRITING

begin working on North Country Quest again

worked more on Chapter 1- "Meanders and Undulations"

still about 5 chapters done

2

WRITING

edit Kiss of the Butterfly, submit for publication

nothing

nothing

3

WRITING

100 NC History pages

nothing

just the planning in Nov

4

WRITING

blog about 8 wild foods

none

none

5

WRITING

finish Dead Mule Swamp Druggist

chapters 23-26

8 chapters added

6

WRITING

do 10 book promotion things

2 sold books at Your Story on Stage, and Authorpalooza in Big Rapids

6

7

WRITING

writing schedule day 50 times

0 (this doesn't mean I didn't write, but this refers to a particular disciplined schedule, and I didn't do any)

9

8

WRITING

5 entries in Off the Sanctuary Wall

none

none

9

WRITING

pursue a contract I can't name yet

follow up contact

no results

10

WRITING

talk to 5 bookstores about carrying mysteries

none

none

11

HOUSE

fix kitchen drawer

DONE

DONE

12

HOUSE

cut down 5 autumn olive trees

none

none

13

HOUSE

clean refrigerator twice

1

1, and had to wash out spilled mulberry syrup in the freezer

14

HOUSE

replace kitchen faucet

nothing

nothing

15

HOUSE

get lawnmower fixed

nothing

nothing

16

HOUSE

clean terrace

nothing

nothing

17

HOUSE

kitchen light electric box

nothing

nothing

18

HOUSE

replace faucet by washing machine

nothing

nothing

19

HOUSE

put away model railroad stuff

none

none

20

HOUSE

spend 10 hours sorting books

1

2

21

FITNESS

increase to 30 pushups

23

increase of 2 since December

22

FITNESS

increase to 100 jumping jacks

70

increase of 5 since December

23

FITNESS

increase to 2 min planking

70 sec

no increase

24

FITNESS

walk, bike, ski or snowshoe 200 times

29

49, better

25

HIKING

NCT Hike 100 Challenge for 2016

9

total of 9 miles on two SPW hikes

26

HIKING

visit 5 new MI counties to explore trails

none

none

27

HIKING

hike 100 more miles of the Buckeye Trail

none

next spring

28

HIKING

clear my trail better

0

total of 13 days, wrong season now

29

PERSONAL

Savings Goal

added some

75% to goal

30

PERSONAL

Financial Goal #2

nothing

nothing

31

PERSONAL

lose 10 pounds

0

I'm back to where I was when I started this which means I lost 1 from Dec

32

PERSONAL

play music 50 times

8

14

33

PERSONAL

other #1 (200 times)

27

34, better

34

PERSONAL

other #2

0

1, not on track

35

MISC

make 21 quarts juice

0

7 total

36

MISC

try 10 new wild foods

none

none

37

MISC

some genealogy stuff

nothing

nothing

38

MISC

100 more pix on Shark Shots

none

none

39

MISC

2 photo cards documented

nothing

nothing, but backing up important stuff on line

40

MISC

give 10 gifts from my kitchen

1

3

41

MISC

eat at Brenda's Burgers

with Ester

DONE

42

MISC

eat at Country Critters

nothing

but I'd better, because it's for sale

43

MISC

take my trailer on 2 trips

none

none

44

MISC

finish monkey booties

1

one pair done, one to go

45

MISC

get two programs NCT and Kitchen Sink

tentative contacts

probably one for April 2017

46

MISC

get rid of 100 things

1

8

47

MISC

read or listen to 100 books

25Best one in Jan was The Wrong Man by James Neff, a reporter who looks into the Sam Shepherd murder case and convincingly points to the true killer of Shepherd's wife. Best on in Feb was The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson, a narrative of the great cholera epidemic of London in 1854

Sunday, February 28, 2016

While I was hiking yesterday, I got some macro pictures of different lichens. You might remember I bragged a while ago that I now had books, and was going to try to start identifying some of them. Ha! One needs a couple of kinds of testing chemicals, and a lot more observation time than I have previously devoted to the lowly lichen.

But, I'll tentatively identify these... at least into general groups. In all three cases, one has to look closely. A casual glance at the scruffy green stuff on a log isn't going to tell you enough to get beyond "lichen."

At first pass, this looks like quite a collection of various things: moss, possibly two lichens, a pine needle, a dried bit of grass. But, I think the lichen is all one kind, possibly candlestick lichen, Cladonia coniocraea. The gray-green flabby parts are called squamules, and the stalks are podetia.

Next is common antler lichen, Pseudevernia consocians, I think. The fun thing about this picture is the little cups at the ends of some of the stalks. Those are apothecia, where the spores are produced.

I like this picture. Very much unsure of the identification. I'm pretty sure it's not Pixie Cups, because the cups are narrow and irregular. I've showed you pixie cups before. There are several lichens with this general form. At this point my best guess is narrow crown lichen, Cladonia rei.

If I'm really going to do this, I need to be taking tons of pictures, so I can start with the kindergarten skill of same or different. Seriously... I have to be able to tell which little "trumpets" might just be dirty or damaged pixies, or which might be the golf tees, or the wacky deformed ones, or which are just dirty and which have soredia.... And that's just the Cladonia.

Found out there are at least three kinds of reindeer lichen. So, I need to get more specific on that. Wow.

Nice warm day today. Took my road walk early because the sky seemed to be graying. Good timing. It started to rain just after I got home!

Saturday, February 27, 2016

One of my favorite local hikes is anywhere around Bowman Lake, a small glacial kettle hole. My expectations for scenery were low because this is an icky-looking time of year. But this place even manages to look great on one of these gray and brown days.

The first thing I noticed as I began to walk closer was the interactive vertical lines of tree, reflection and cattail.

Then, my eye was drawn to the opposite bank with its little hill.

Even the angled shadows on the snow reflected so there is a chevron pattern imposed on the verticals.

First I walked around the lake. Here's just a general view from the back side.

I hiked for an hour and got a REALLY good workout. The snow wasn't deep enough to call the walking "postholing," but it was soft and mushy, and anyone watching would have thought I was drunk. Each step ended up at a different angle.

Here's my favorite picture of the day. Even though it's similar to one above, in this one the tree lines are so straight, and with the melting spots at their bases, it looks as if they are pins threaded through buttonholes to stitch the shoreline to the water.

Did I have a good time? What do you think?

After I walked around the lake I followed an old woods road for a while, and took some interesting close-up shots. Maybe tomorrow you'll see those.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Unlike the ordinary housing featured at What's Hatching, just down the road, this is the high class neighborhood.

No riff-raff allowed!

The infrastructure is even slightly better, a boxelder instead of autumn olive. However, if the occupants paid for the really top contractor, they got cheated. Although the boxelder is a member of the maple family, it's pretty much the low end of the quality ladder.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Tonight I got to meet James, who is thru-hiking the North Country Trail. Oh yeah, and that right after he hiked the Appalachian Trail, and made a detour to see the Atlantic Ocean (on foot), and walked from Maine to New Hampshire and down the Long Trail to get to the NCT because it would have been boring to backtrack on the AT. You get the drift. He's a hiker.

I picked him up at the end of his trail day and took him to his aunt's house. Then I got to pick his brain so I can write about him for my newspaper column. He was gracious to let me do that before he even got to eat dinner.

Wish we could have talked longer, and I could have hiked with him, but I had to get home because I work again tomorrow. Hope to meet up with him some time in the future.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Long day. Waaaaay too much shopping, including a shiny new phone. That might sound like a positive thing, but it's just a bunch of new stuff to figure out and I don't find it all that fascinating to struggle to use a piece of technology that I don't even like. Anyway.

The best thing about today was getting another chapter done in Dead Mule Swamp Druggist. I blogged about that at Joan of Shark

But I haven't had a chance to show you the ring around the moon from Saturday night. The rainbow appearance doesn't show well in the photo, but the colors were very clear in reality. It's called a halo and is created when there are ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Not eggs, in February. (Although the great blue herons should be starting their nest repairs really soon).

Not springtime just yet, either. No, I don't think those dead leaves are going to hatch.

However, I devoted my walk time to hatching the rest of the plot for Dead Mule Swamp Druggist. Actually, I only needed the middle. I know how the book is going to turn out--whodunnit. I just needed to connect the dots for how Anastasia Raven is going to figure it out.

Walking is my cure for everything, and it did not disappoint. I came home with this picture and the intermediate plot pieces, and have a rough outline of all the rest of the chapters in the book.

What kind of a nest is it? Don't really know. Probably some kind of sparrow. It's in a horrid autumn olive tree. I keep putting off getting the field guide to nests. So, I fixed that after I got home. It should be here in just a few days.

For sure it's not the eagle nest. One of the eagles was flying over just as I returned home and I caught it in the lens this time.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Finally got the issue with my conversion software straightened out, so I can once again edit videos taken on my camera. So... I bring you our handbell choir pieces from this morning. I really like both of them.

I grabbed a guy I didn't even know and asked him to record the songs. Maybe next time I'll remember to take my tripod, and then I can set it up and push the button before we go to the front.

First is Rondeau by Henry Purcell. We did this one for the prelude.

The special music was The Potter's Hand by Darlene Zschech, with a vocal ensemble. This piece is fairly hard, and we were really pleased that it finally came together. When we were able to practice with the vocalists it helped us all because it was easier to follow the tricky timing.

I've got bells ringing in my head! And I'm really pleased to be part of a group that can generate quality music, which I am not so good at on my own.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Today I traveled to Big Rapids to participate in another of their occasional Authorpalooza events. As I've said before, these are very well organized. I know, because I've been to quite a few that weren't. This time, there were 40 authors, and probably hundreds of books for sale.

I only sold a couple of books, but I'm developing a good network of contacts with other authors. Here are two that are like old friends now. Joe Roper writes youth fantasy, and Judith Wade (Lori Hudson) writes fiction for both young readers and adults.

One of the most fun things about the day was the presence of all these classic literary characters courtesy of the theatre fraternity of Ferris State University! How many can you identify?

General shots of events like this just look messy, but here's one anyway.

It was well worth my time for several reasons. I made friends with a person who's big on marketing, and had conversations about two potential programs. Also, picked up publicity for two other similar events in Michigan later in the year. My big problem with those, apart from the gas money, is that I'd have to take Friday night off work as well. That's a lot of lost income, since one can seldom make enough money through sales to actually pay for the trips. It's about publicity, really. To expand my reach would be great, but I can't really afford it. It's a dilemma. This one is only an hour away from home, so that's pretty do-able.

Fun day, but my limited sleep last night (this morning) may have caught up with me. Good night!

Friday, February 19, 2016

Today's quality item is that my car had some repairs. Although the total costs added up to more than I would have liked, the really good news is that there is no real damage. I wasn't sure that was going to be true.

On Wednesday a sudden oil leak appeared, creating much concern on my part. The dipstick showed DRY, so I added two quarts of oil, whereupon it decided to indicate that it was overfilled. Yikes. And what the heck?

Anyway, it now has a new oil pressure switch (the culprit), two worn belts are replaced, and the oil has been changed.

Huge sigh of relief. Tomorrow is the big Authorpalooza event in Big Rapids. I should have pictures and a good report to bring.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Just another mouse tunnel/track in the snow, but I think this one is a lot of fun.

In some places, the mouse was on the surface and created a trough. In other places, it must have been just below the surface because it humped the snow up into a ridge like the way a mole makes a ridge of dirt

It always makes me smile when the critter goes diving. I just get this mental image of the mouse suddenly realizing he's been out on top of the world, exposed. Sort of like if we went walking on the outer edge of the atmosphere. Oops! Time to go below.